Tag: product launch

Today we launched the new Jolicharts. It’s by far the most promissing version we’ve brought out since we launched the beta last year.

Product launches are like births. Or almost. (At least from a man’s point of view.)

Over the past 4 years I gave birth to 2 adorable children (with a little help of my wife) and 2 cool products (Verteego and Jolicharts, with a little help from my team).

And at every product launch I have this strange feeling of giving birth to something.

I wanted to understand why this comparison seemed so obvious. What the heck do the birth of a baby and the launch of a web app have in common?

More than you can imagine…

Conception
You are not really aware of the consequences of what you’re doing. Of what will be the outcome in some months and at which point it will impact your future life. But you are doing it. Because it’s so much fun doing it.

1 month
You know it’s launched. An incredible mix of happiness and fear. Of pride and questioning.

4 months
For the first time you see what it looks like. You’re scared because it does not look at all like what you imagined. But you know it’s a prototype. So you keep being optimistic.

6 months
It’s getting heavier and heavier. You’re carrying it with you day and night. It keeps you from sleeping and sometimes it kicks you. You know that you can’t get rid of it anymore. And you don’t want to.

8 months
You wish it would already be here. You can’t understand why it takes such a long time. You’ve heard about people who gave birth after 8 months already. That makes you angry but straight forward.

8 months and a half
The last 2 weeks were the longest ones of your whole life. You can’t move anymore. You don’t want to move anymore. Nothing’s going forward. You feel stuck. You’re just waiting and hoping that the day will come. But you know you can’t make it come faster.

9 months
It’s out. You’re infinitely happy. You didn’t expect it will happen today. It was so much less dramatic than you expected. Everybody is congratulating you. They say what you’ve done is beautiful and unique. You think it’s not unique yet, but you know it’s only up to you to make it unique over the years. For the moment you’re just glad it’s breathing and healthy.

9 months and 3 days
You’re back home. Nobody’s here anymore to tell you how beautiful it is. Sleepless nights are back again. To keep you motivated, you’re looking forward to all the beautiful things that are up to come. You know it’s a long, long road to go.

…

26 years
You don’t need to put money into it anymore. It’s able to live its own life now.